macmankev wrote:It feels weird to me. The one-day one-deal thing seems to be gone, and that is basically what woot is about, what it was founded on.
The funny thing is, while woot was down, I went and found this article from 2008 about how woot came to be, directly from Matt Rutledge himself.
It just feels like now they're trying to pack as many deals as they can into a page, and hope the dumb customers go for them.
Now there are some great things about the new site, and you can nitpick about the design (OH GOD MY EYES ARE BLEEDING FROM ALL THE WHITE), but it doesn't just feel like a new design, it feels like it's not woot.
THIS!!! THIS!!! THIS!!!!
110% THIS!!!
Woot! just doesn't feel like the "King of the Daily Deals" website anymore because.... well... it doesn't seem like a daily deal website anymore. I do not come to Woot! to shop "Amazon Lite." I come to Woot! to shop a daily deal, read a funny description, and read the forum posts about the item for insight about the usefulness and/or quality of the item for sale. Now there are just too many other things going on with the front page.
Major Problem #1-
IF Woot! needs to keep the new design, the product detail page should be the main/front page. The product description SHOULD NEVER be hidden behind a link. Come on!! You are a daily deal site. You sell ONE ITEM and somehow it is now too much to ask for the front page to have that item AND the full write up and description?!?! What the Hades?? Why would you do that?
*MAJOR* Problem #2-
The active buttons like the "post" button under this message window or the "Comment" button appear white and the text in them is severely washed out. They are VERY hard to even see. If people DO see them, I'm sure several people will think the same thing I did- the button is inactive or not working. Way to make it hard on people.
Major Problem #3-
What's the Features? is with all the OTHER stuff for sale? If you want to sell more stuff each day, either (a) make another cutesy/kitschy site (like moofi or happy hour or woot overflow or whatever) and do it there, or (b) just be honest with yourselves and stop calling yourself a daily deal site with the tag line of "One Day, One Deal."
Major Problem #4-
I have read endless comments from people here about how cluttered and AD RIDDEN the new page is. I agree is it WAY too cluttered looking and I mercifully have ad block software so I don't see all the ads. Here's a hint: putt too many ads on your pages and you WILL loose page/ad views because either people stop coming to your page or they get ad blocking software. Either way, you lose.
Major Problem #5-
You screwed the pooch on the layout. You are KNOWN for the clean, clear, crisp, and easy layout of the top part of your product page. You are SO known for this layout you parodied yourself with the layout of moofi. Why would you change that? Put the product highlights, price, and buy it button back on the right side of the page where they belong. Remember, people in this country and most of the world read LEFT to RIGHT. Go back to letting the product image lead to the product highlights, price and buy button.
Major Problem #6-
You also screwed the pooch in the way you changed a lot of little details. PUT THE CONDITION BACK IN THE HIGHLIGHTS. By making it hard to determine if the product is new or referb, it seems like you are trying to hide that detail, especially since you used to do it up front. It makes it look like you're getting shady. I hate it when a site makes me dig for that info. You've now become one of those sites. While the links at the top are nice, you already had the tabs and the little preview squares at the lower right. Why not just add the preview window to the top tabs?
All that said, the "Stuff you Bought" page is kinda nice. However, why in the world didn't you put on that page HOW MANY of each item I bought. I know I can try to guesstimate the math or go to the detail page, but again with the making people click a link to see more of the basic information you used to tell them up front.
Stop HIDING VITAL and/or BASIC INFO behind LINKS!! Go back to putting JUST ONE product on each page/site. Loose some of the white. I usually read this site late at night, since that is when you post the new items, and all that white hurts at that time of night. Most of all:
STOP TRYING TO BE SOMETHING YOU AREN'T a.k.a. Amazon Daily Deal. They already have a page for that, it's called "Gold Box" and "Lightening Deals."
Since the page is now labeled "Woot Beta" where is the link to go back to the NON-beta version... you know... the good, already working site?